DHAKA: An American from Alabama who ascended the ranks of Somalia`s al-Shabaab armed group high enough to attract a $5 million US government bounty has been killed in an ambush ordered by the group`s leader, witnesses said.

Residents in al Baate village in southern Somalia said Omar Hammami, commonly known as Abu Mansoor al-Amriki or `the American`, and a British national known as Usama al-Britani, were shot dead in a dawn raid on their hideout.

Hammami`s killing exposed widening rifts in al-Shabaab`s top ranks as the group affiliated to al-Qaeda grapples with an African Union-led military offensive that has captured key cities from it, depriving the group of revenues.

"This morning al-Amriki and his comrades were attacked by well-armed fighters," said village resident Hussein Nur on Thursday. "After a brief fight al-Amriki and his two colleagues were killed. Several of their guards escaped."

A second villager confirmed the gun battle and said he had heard al-Shabaab fighters confirm the deaths, though he had not seen the bodies.

Hammami is believed to have arrived in Somalia aged 22 in late 2006, shortly before a US-backed Ethiopian military incursion into the war-shattered Horn of Africa country to rout an Islamist administration that had dislodged the government.

Source: Aljazeera

BDST: 0122 HRS, SEP 13, 2013
GR/SRS